1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for inputting characters in a mobile communication terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for enabling the user to easily select character items (which are displayed so that the user may select a type of character to be input by the user) and to efficiently input characters in a character input mode of the mobile communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a mobile communication terminal includes a cellular phone, a personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Personal Communication Services Phone (PCS), an International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) terminal, a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) terminal, and so on, which refer to apparatuses capable of providing a communication function (such as communication or data exchange) while in motion.
Such mobile communication apparatuses are now commonly used by all types of people (of all ages and walks of life) throughout the world, and are recognized by people as an indispensable tool which must always be carried on their person. In consideration of portability, designs of such mobile communication apparatuses have tended not only toward compactness, slimness and lightness, but also toward multimedia availability, having a wider variety of functions.
In particular, future mobile communication apparatuses are expected to incorporate greater multi-functionality and multi-purpose utilization, as well as greater compactness and lightness, and also will be modified to be suitable for various multimedia environments or Internet environments.
Meanwhile, while the mobile communication terminal is used to perform a communication function such as a voice call, the mobile communication terminal also provides various supplementary functions, such as a short message transmission/reception function, a memory function for storing and searching for phone numbers, automatic calling/answering functions, a current time and day-of-the-week display function, an automatic power-off function, an emergency dial function, a locking function, an alarm function, a local-number confirmation function, a melody input function, and a calculator function for performing the four mathematical operations, in addition to the voice communication function.
In general, a mobile communication terminal providing a short message transmission/reception function enters a message input mode by key input of the user (generally by entry through a menu key). In particular, the mobile communication terminal displays the types of characters (such as character items representing Korean characters, English upper case characters, English lower case characters and special characters) so that the user may select the type of character to be input in the message input mode.
Therefore, in a case in which the user wants to input Korean characters, when the user moves a cursor to be located at a Korean character item by using the menu key and selects a key, the corresponding Korean character is displayed.
FIGS. 1A to 1C are diagrams illustrating the conventional character input method in a mobile communication terminal.
FIG. 1A shows a screen showing Korean characters of ‘’ which have been input by a user. In inputting the Korean characters, the user inputs a menu key in the message input mode of the mobile communication terminal, selects ‘K’ from among items of ‘K’, ‘A’, ‘a’ and ‘S’ which are located at a lower portion of the screen in the mobile communication terminal, and then inputs the characters of ‘’ Herein, the ‘K’ item represents the Korean characters, the ‘A’ item represents the English capital characters, the ‘a’ item represents the English lower case characters and the ‘S’ item represents special characters.
In order to input special characters of ‘♥ ♥ ♥’ on the screen shown in FIG. 1A, when the user of the mobile communication terminal presses the menu key three times to select the item of ‘S’ and then selects the special character of ‘♥’ three times from among special characters contained in the ‘S’ item, characters of ‘ ♥ ♥ ♥’ are displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. 1B.
Then, in order to input the English lower case characters of ‘love’ on the screen shown in FIG. 1B, when the user presses the menu key three times to select the item of ‘a’ and then selects keys corresponding to the ‘love’, characters of ‘ ♥ ♥ ♥ love’ are displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. 1C.
As described above, according to the conventional character input method, when the user selects an item representing the type of characters to be input by the user, the cursor for selection moves only to the right direction from among the items.
As a result, as described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, when the user wants to input special characters after inputting the Korean characters, the user must press the menu key three times so as to select the item of ‘S’ representing the special characters. Also, if the user wants to input the English lower case character while inputting the special character, the user must press the menu key three times so as to select the item of ‘a’ representing the English lower case characters. Therefore, the conventional character input method has problems in that it is cumbersome to move among the items and to repeat key strokes, and thus user-friendliness is degraded.